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Thursday, July 26, 2012

Thursday Tales: An Unexpected Journey

The car sputtered briefly, unsure if it wanted to keep running or just give it up and die. Daniel tapped his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel and waited for Jennifer to come out of the building she'd disappeared into.

"Wait here, I'll be right back. Keep the car running."

The last few weeks had been whirlwind. Ever since he'd met her at a bar one Friday night, he'd found himself doing things out of character. A young professional, steadily climbing up the corporate ladder one rung at a time, he played by the rules, did his homework, graduated at the top of his class. Last weekend, they'd broken onto the roof of a building that explicitly said "KEEP OUT" and kissed under the stars. She'd come to his office, pretending to be a UPS driver. Very inappropriately behaving one, too. They'd snuck into movies, loitered, and panhandled just for fun.

The doors of the apartment building flew open and Jennifer raced down the stairs, something stuffed under her shirt. Jumping into the car and slamming the door shut behind her, she yelled, "Go go go! Drive!"

"What?"

The doors of the building opened again, and two men began to run toward the car.

"JUST GO!"

Daniel shoved the car into "Drive" and sped off into the street toward the freeway. "Where are we going?"

"South. Just go south... we should be safe there."

"Safe?" Daniel's eyebrows knitted in confusion. "What did you take?"

Jennifer pulled something out from under her shirt and Daniel's eyes widened. "A BABY? You stole a BABY? You can't steal a baby!"